Re: religion

["Richard Fidler" <rfidler@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I couldn't give a tinker's damn whether Doug Henwood (or, for that
matter, Xxxx Xxxxxx) has or has not got religion. But here's an item (by
a contributor to the Inroads list in Canada) about someone who does, and
he's armed and dangerous. Let's keep our sights aimed on this one....


>> Ha'aretz has acquired minutes of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud
Abbas's ceasefire negotiations with leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and
the Popular and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The
context is that Abbas is trying to persuade the leaders of these
organizations to declare a ceasefire, as they have now done. They are
angry with him for calling them "terrorists" during the Aqaba summit. He
is trying to explain the necessity of dealing with the Americans to
pressure Israel.

>> In the course of his speech, Abbas relates what Bush told him at
Aqaba. According to Abbas, Bush said, "God told me to strike at al Qaida
and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which
I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."
Was this an accurate paraphrase of what Bush said? Given Abbas's agenda
(persuade the militant organizations to allow him to continue down the
road of negotiations), he would have no reason to portray Bush in what
they would view as an unfavourable light. A statement against interest
is usually taken to be credible. The inference is that the President of
the United States believes God told him to invade Iraq. It is unreported
whether the Almighty was responsible for the proposal to exempt
corporate dividends from income tax.

>> Here's the link (through J. Bradford deLong's website):

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=310788&contrassID=
2&su bContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y